


being open

by willa_james



Series: brave new world [2]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:40:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29373987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willa_james/pseuds/willa_james
Summary: Sofie has a hardcore crush on this girl in her therapy group, and Louis and Harry are trying to slow things down.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, OFC/OFC
Series: brave new world [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2157558
Kudos: 5





	being open

I finally told my parents about my anxiety. It’s been difficult, but they apparently know a therapist in town who they went to school with, and I have my first session with a little “support group”, they called it.  
“It’ll be a learning experience, Sofie,” Dad had reasoned. “You’ll feel a lot better once you get there. Liam’s a really nice guy-”  
Papa cut him off gently. “Dr. Payne, sweetie. Don’t go calling people you don’t know by their first names,” he laughs.  
I knew they were trying to calm me down, but my mind kept racing. I wasn’t having a good day today, and it wasn’t helping that Papa was being disgustingly affectionate with Dad today. It was just annoying, honestly, at this point.  
Now, a week later, as we’re driving to the office, I feel a bit better about things. I think that i just overworked myself, and it all of a sudden doesn’t seem so scary to go see someone. I watch the buildings blow by, placing my hand on my chin, and I feel calm for once. We’ve cracked open a window to let some air in, and I can smell crisp mountain air. It clears my head of any doubts and feels like a wisp of reassurance.  
All too soon, the drive is over. Dad parks the car and the three of us hop out, Papa squeezing in between us to grab our hands. I take a deep breath and, setting my shoulders, march determinedly into the office.

Harry

“Do you think she’ll be alright?” Harry asks nervously, tightening his grip on Louis’ hand.  
Louis looks up at him, blue eyes shining. “I’m not worried. Liam’s a good guy, and she’s strong. She’ll be fine.” He seems so confident, the set of his jaw so strong, that Harry can’t help but feel better about the whole thing.  
Louis leans up for a quick peck, and Harry smiles against his lips. “Shall we?” he asks, and after a quick nod from Louis, they hop in the car to drive out to the trail.  
After a while driving, Louis parks the car. The pair hop out and walk briskly, hand in hand, to their favourite spot by the river.  
Once they find a bench, Louis sighs. Harry can tell something’s weighing him down, so he puts an arm around Louis’ shoulder and leans his head down on Harry’s shoulder.  
“Do you remember,” Harry starts, “how, when we first moved here, we’d come here all the time? And we’d just sit here, and we’d watch the sunset, and talk about all the things we wanted to do, and see, and feel? I miss that,” he murmurs. He can’t help but miss it, not when they’ve had Sofie for fifteen years and haven’t gotten nearly as much alone time as they had when they were younger.  
“I miss it too, Haz,” Louis says quietly, burrowing his head further into Harry’s shoulder. He brings a hand up to Harry’s hair, winding it slowly through the curls. “I miss it, too.”

For a while, they’re quiet, watching the river sway and the trees bend in the breeze. Then, Harry mumbles something out of the blue. “Do you ever miss being young? You know, being free and having nothing to worry about except grades and rumors and silly teenage things?”  
“I do,” Louis admits. “But at the same time, it’s nice, y’know, having something to worry about, in a way. Like, when we were younger, we could just risk it all for a thrill, but now, we’re more careful, ‘cause we have Sofie and stuff. Do you get it? It gives us something to be careful for.” He sighs, turning his head a bit to look up at Harry. His eyes shining, he smiles up at his husband. “It’s nice,” he repeats.  
Harry leans back, thinking about it. “You’re right,” he says begrudgingly, and, with one more glance at Louis, leans down to kiss him.  
They sit like that for a while, murmured bits of conversation peeking through long minutes of languid kissing, and Harry hasn’t felt this good in a while. It’s peaceful, sitting here with Louis, just being in the moment. He feels happier than he does even in the mornings, when they have an hour to themselves to sing or cuddle or kiss or fool around before their daughter comes in to say good morning.  
When the sun begins to sink below the tree line, Louis pokes Harry off of his resting place on the former’s chest. “Move it, Harold,” he says. “We’ve still got to pick up Fi from the Payno.”  
Harry grumbles a bit, but eventually gets up. As they’re driving through town, Harry glances over at Louis in the driver’s seat. He doesn’t need to say anything, because they both can hear the three words in the air between them.  
I love you, they both say wordlessly.

Sofie

Once my parents dropped me off at the office, I felt surprisingly okay. Waiting in the reception area was actually quite peaceful, and I felt right at home immediately among the motherly receptionists and overload of potted plants.  
Just as I begin to relax, though, a tall brunette woman in a stiff suit marches through the door to the waiting room. She carries a clipboard in hands with talons painted a rich red colour, and her heels click ominously as she makes her way towards the front of the room.  
Flashing a surprisingly kind smile - a sunshine smile, I decide- she gazes around the room. Her eyes are warm as she calls out my and a few others’ names, and I like her immediately.  
“Luca, Jocelyn, Nichola, Sofie, you can come with me,” she announces. I stand up immediately, sending a tentative smile her way, and she returns the favour, her eyes crinkling around the edges.  
As the others and I follow the woman through a long hallway, she looks back at us and smiles the sunshine smile again. “My name is Dr. Hadid. I’m Dr. Payne’s assistant, and I’m going to be helping out with your meeting today,” she says. Her voice is soothing, and although her high cheekbones and narrow, angled face had seemed intimidating at first, she radiates warmth through her expression. Stopping in the hallway, she looks at us with a smaller smile. “I think that we can all be on a first-name basis, though, so once we get in the room, why don’t we all tell each other about ourselves?”  
It sounds terribly cringe-worthy and cliched to me, but I smile warmly at Dr. Hadid and continue to follow her and the others down the hall.  
We reach the room where our meeting is to be held, and Dr. Hadid pulls out some chairs for us. I choose the chair in the front, because I feel confident, and Luca, Jocelyn, and Nichola choose chairs behind me.  
“I don’t like this at all,” I hear suddenly behind me. I whip around, surprised to see the girl who must be Jocelyn smiling faintly. “Why can’t we make it a circle? I want to see everyone,” she intones. Her voice is lovely, rich and deep, and as I hold her gaze, I feel a strange tingling in my chest.  
I clear my throat. “Um,” I say stupidly, “um, sure, yeah, why not?” I face my chair in, and the boy-Luca?- helps me move the other chairs out of the way while Jocelyn and Nichola switch their chairs around.  
Once we’re done, Dr. Hadid smiles at us. “I’m glad to see you’re getting along, guys,” she says, pursing her lips in a little smile. “Here- let me sit- and let’s see… why don’t we have you start us off, Sofie? Tell us a little bit about yourself.”  
I glance a bit apprehensively at Dr. Hadid’s clipboard, and she laughs and places it under her chair. “Sorry,” she smiles. “Classic doctor behaviour, I know. Well, go on,” she prompts, “who are you, Sofie?”  
I clear my throat again. Jocelyn’s staring at me again and I’m getting bubbles in my chest. I shove those scary thoughts out of my mind and begin. I tell the group about myself, my dads, my childhood, weird and random things like my favourite colours and flowers and school subjects, and my pet peeves, and I only realize that I’ve been talking for a few more minutes than planned when Dr. Hadid interrupts and says, “Thanks, Sofie.” She’s smiling a sunshine smile again. “I’ll go next.”  
As Dr. Hadid talks, I learn that her name is Bella and she has an older sister, Gigi, and a younger brother, Anwar. She’s a Libra, and her favourite colour is red. She doesn’t talk for long, and quickly moves on to Luca, who tells us about his passion for soccer (football?) and his huge family of eight. Luca passes the discussion over to Nichola, a soft-spoken blonde with more wit than she lets on and a wicked sense of humor. Finally, the conversation shifts to Jocelyn. Her deep voice is quiet, but it resonates around the room. As she talks, I can’t help but think how much she reminds me of my Papa. She has the same quiet charm that can grip a room in an instant- but I notice she smiles quite a bit less.

About a quarter of an hour later, we finally meet Dr. Payne. He’s a kind, welcoming sort of man, and we all warm up to him quickly. I find myself opening up a lot more than I thought I would have in the first place.  
After the session is over, Dr. Payne pulls me to the side. He tells me that he knew my parents, which I knew, but then he surprises me by saying that they were, and I quote, “thick as thieves” back when they were in school together. I laugh at this. “I’ll be sure to tell them you said that,” I say. With a pat on the shoulder, he sends me on my way.  
As I walk out, I feel a hand on my arm. It’s Jocelyn. She shoots me a fleeting smile.  
“Give me your arm,” she says. I don’t know why, but I offer my forearm forward without hesitation.  
Maybe it’s the way she spoke, or the way she looked at me, or the way her pen scraped gently against my skin as she wrote her number on my arm. But as I walk out, I can’t help but feel a tiny rush of nerves and excitement for what could happen…

Harry

“No, Lou, I don’t know how many times I have to say this. You have to whisk the cheese in, you don’t just stir it in!” Harry says, exasperated but fond.  
“Jesus,” Louis growls, “it’s not my fault I’m not some Master Chef - type guy. Give me a break!” He’s laughing, though, and Harry sees it in his husband’s eyes as he glares saucily up at him.  
Harry rolls his eyes. “Go find some nice music so I don’t have to cook you dinner and listen to you whine at the same time,” he says dotingly, turning back to the stove. Louis rolls his eyes and decides to torture Harry further by pressing a very-not-chaste kiss to his neck before flouncing off to find a record. Harry whines, rolling his eyes, and rubs the slightly painful mark Louis left on his neck. He’s blushing, but he won’t let Louis see as he stirs- no, whisks- the sauce further, giggling a bit.  
Just as Harry finishes at the stove, he hears the opening notes of a very familiar song begin to play.  
“Isn’t she lo-vely,” Louis sings. Harry whips around and brings him into a dance, and as they twirl around the kitchen, Harry feels the same bit of love and peace he did at the river earlier today.

**Author's Note:**

> This was fun, friends. :*  
> What do you think should happen with this story? Should I mostly eliminate Sofie's character to focus more on Louis and Harry? Let me know...  
> Much love!


End file.
